Lou & Lucy’s Leftovers: Soup season

Soup season. Yup, soup season. For me it starts with Halloween. I make a couple of soups for tired trick-or-treaters. Mainly for the parents and anyone else who might emerge from the dark and scary night.

This year I made my traditional corn chowder. Just the usual way. I did add some paprika, for extra flavor. I used salt pork to get it started and saved the cracklings to use for garnish. It was warm and hearty.

I also made a curried butternut squash soup with coconut milk. I got the recipe from the tv show “The Chew.” It was super easy and fast. I will admit to buying pre-peeled and diced squash to expedite matters. Also, because peeling the squash can be a real pain in the you-know-what. I can’t say I followed the recipe very closely — I made it Wednesday night and there was a very distracting game on TV, you know — but it came out great. I have a gurnger, which is family vernacular for immersion blender, named for the sound it makes. If you like pureed soup this is a must-have. I remember the days when I would use the blender. What a mess! I don’t know why but it always turned into a hassle. With the gurnger, as long as you (very important) keep the tip submerged, it is simple and stays in one pot.

Anyways ... soup’s on at my house. And will be until spring starts singing its song.

Funny about your family’s name for an immersion blender: gurnger! I have one, but it’s buried so deep in one of my kitchen drawers it’s hard to find. So I often end up putting hot liquids in the blender and forgetting to leave an opening at the top. Quite messy in a not-so-fun sort of way.